Homemade Membrillo (Quince Cheese)
Membrillo, quince cheese, kitnikez – just a few names for a beloved European sweet treat made from quinces. If you grew up in a quince-growing region, chances are you or someone you know has a cherished family recipe for homemade membrillo.
Membrillo, or quince paste, is the ultimate autumnal indulgence. It’s like a chewy, fruity jelly candy, but totally natural and so incredibly delicious.
If you want to use the short quince season to prepare something truly special, stick around for my favourite (and easy!) homemade membrillo recipe. I included a sugar-free option too because I know that many of my readers avoid sugar altogether.
Membrillo recipe ingredients
To make this easy membrillo at home, you will need the following ingredients:
- Quinces – try to get ripe ones, which means yellow and very fragrant. They will give you the most delicious membrillo.
- Raw cane sugar or other non-refined sugar of choice. I would avoid dark muscovado because it will alter the flavour and colour of the quince paste with its high molasses content. It’s also very moist and therefore not the best choice to get the jelly texture.
- Xylitol – the best option instead of sugar, if you want to avoid carb sweeteners altogether. Xylitol is an alcohol derived from birch trees that feels sweet in the mouth but has a very low glycemic index.
- Lemon juice – even though every grandma recommends lemon juice for activating the pectin, I’ve successfully made membrillo without any lemon juice on more than several occasions. It’s up to you – adding some lemon juice is the recommended safe choice, but if you don’t have any at home, you’ll likely survive without it.
- Water.
Quinces are the perfect fruit for this kind of sweet – not only because of their beautiful flavour but also because of their high pectin content. The natural pectin in quinces is what makes the cooked quince paste set and turn into candy when cooled down.
That’s where the lemon juice comes in handy: by lowering the pH of the quince paste, it neutralises the negative charges on pectin molecules, making it easier for them to form a sort of a “net” and therefore helping the membrillo firm up.
Raw quinces are very tart and practically inedible. Cooking the quinces will remove the tannins (molecules that make them taste so adstringent) and transform them into a delicious and versatile fruit, ideal for creating a variety of sweet treats.
As for the choice of sweetener for this membrillo recipe, I’ve experimented quite a bit with all kinds of non-refined sweeteners but I always come back to good old raw cane sugar (the one with small, yellow crystals) or demerara (also yellow to light brown, a bit larger crystals).
You can also use light muscovado, jaggery or even honey, but in my experience, the membrillo sets the best with raw cane sugar or demerara.
Of course, if you are not concerned about sugar in food, you can use any kind of white sugar and it will work great.
And for those of you who are completely avoiding sugar, xylitol is my non-carbohydrate sugar of choice for this recipe. I’ve made membrillo with it a few times, and it turned out great.
How to make membrillo
There are several ways to make membrillo, but after many experiments, I’d say I found my favourite. It’s my take on the old-school Croatian way with oven-baked quinces. The quickest, easiest and least messy membrillo recipe if you ask me.
Btw, we don’t call it membrillo, we call it kitnikez – after the German word quittenkäse, which means “quince cheese”. But I want this recipe to be available to more people than a few enthusiasts from northern Croatia whose baka didn’t make kitnikez (sorry guys… in my heart, I stay faithful to kitnikez).
Anyway, the recipe.
To make membrillo, first wash the quinces under running water with a sponge, to remove all the fuzz that’s leftover on their skin. This is the natural fuzz that protects the fruit as it ripens.
Slice the quinces (I like to cut them into six slices vertically) and remove the seeds. Cut the slices into two or three chunks, to end up with approximately an inch-long pieces.
Put the quince chunks into a casserole dish or an oven-safe pot, and add enough water to cover the bottom at up to two fingers’ depth.
Cover the pot, put it into an oven at 180 °C (355 °F) and bake for about an hour. Remove the lid and bake for about thirty more minutes, or until the quinces are tender and most of the liquid (not all!) has evaporated.
Transfer the quinces to another pot (or use the same one) and blend them into a smooth paste using an immersion blender. There has to be some moisture, so if you accidentally baked the quinces for too long and they dried out completely, you can add about half a cup of water.
Put the pot with quince puree on the stovetop, turn on the lowest fire and start cooking them. Add the sugar or xylitol and mix it well. Keep stirring regularly to prevent the quince paste from sticking to the bottom.
Cook the quince paste with constant stirring for another thirty to forty-five minutes over low heat. It’s done when it looks dense, but also somewhat translucent (kind of like a jelly). You can test it by leaving a drop of this paste on a frozen glass or bowl and observing if it sets quickly.
When it’s amber in colour, a bit translucent and moderately dense, it’s ready. However, you can continue cooking it if you like a darker (more red) colour and a denser paste – see the next photo.
Transfer the quince paste to a parchment-lined mould and let it set. I’ve experimented with different moulds and while silicone moulds and oiled glass dishes will work too, parchment paper is the easiest for releasing the set membrillo.
The membrillo will probably be okay to remove from the mould already after a few hours, but it will be best to let it completely set overnight at a cool place – a pantry or even in the fridge if it’s very warm in your house.
After removing the membrillo from the moulds, let it air-dry for one more day for the best result. At this point, you can also slice it into generous chunks for gifting or bite-sized pieces for sweet treats.
You can dust the bite-sized membrillo pieces in sugar or xylitol and they’ll be crazy similar to old-school fruity jelly candies! At least the ones we had here in the Balkans, but I think many other countries had that too.
This time, I’ve made two variations: a more delicate, translucent jelly and a rich, robust one. Both of these quince jellies are great, it’s a matter of personal preference. The lighter one was cooked shorter and is perfect for immediate enjoyment, while the darker, longer-cooked one is perfect for preserving or sharing as gifts.
Storing homemade membrillo
Before storing the membrillo, I like to let it air dry for a couple of days in a cool and dry spot – especially if it turned out a bit softer. Then, I store it in a closed glass jar for the bite-sized, sugar-dusted pieces, or metal cookie tins if I have larger chunks. For gifting, I just wrap individual pieces in parchment paper and tie them with a ribbon.
Membrillo can be stored for very long. As long as it looks good, smells nice and doesn’t get mouldy, it’s good to eat! Mine never survived an entire year because we would eat it before, but I’ve had it for months and it was great. It even gets better as the time passes.
Membrillo recipe equipment
This is the kitchen equipment that I normally use for my homemade membrillo, and recommend it for this recipe:
- Casserole dish with a lid for baking the quinces
- Immersion blender for making the quince purée
- Cooking pot for cooking the membrillo paste
- Cooking spoon
- Loaf pan or a cake mould for setting the membrillo
- Glass jars for preserving the membrillo bites.
Other quince recipes
- Homemade quince jam recipe
- Use oven-baked quinces instead of apples in this breakfast bowl recipe
- This amazing apple and plum crumble pie can be made with quinces too – you can pre-cook or bake the quinces for the best result.
Membrillo (Quince Cheese) Recipe
Membrillo, also known as quince paste or quince cheese, is a delicious sweet treat popular in Europe. Make the perfect membrillo with this easy recipe and preserve those beautiful autumn flavours.
Ingredients
- 1 kg quinces (without the seeds, equals about 1,2 kg with seeds)
- 250 ml water
- 600 g raw cane sugar or xylitol
- Juice of one lemon
Instructions
- Wash the quinces well to remove the natural fuzz from their surface (the easiest way is to rub it off with a sponge under running water).
- Slice the quinces vertically into 6 slices and remove the core containing the seeds. You don’t need to remove the whole hard part in the middle, just the part containing the seeds.
- Cut the quince slices into larger chunks by cutting them in half or into thirds.
- Put the quince chunks into a large casserole dish and add enough water to cover the bottom of the pot - about 1-2 finger-widths deep. In the pot that I normally use, that’s about 250 ml of water.
- Bake the quinces, covered, in a preheated oven at 180°C (355°F) for an hour.
- Then, uncover and bake for an additional 30 minutes, or until the quinces are tender and most of the liquid has evaporated. The quinces should not be completely dry; a small amount of liquid should remain at the bottom of the dish.
- Transfer the soft quince chunks to a pot, add the lemon juice and blend with an immersion blender until you get a smooth purée.
- Add xylitol (or sugar).
- Cook for 30-45 minutes over the lowest heat with constant stirring. The cooking time depends on how wide your pot is and how strong the fire is. The quince purée should be merely simmering, not fully boiling - to avoid splattering or burning the bottom.
- The quince paste is ready when its texture is dense but smooth and somewhat translucent. The cooking spoon should leave a trail at the bottom of the pot when you stir. The colour can range from light amber to almost red, depending on the cooking process and time (the longer you cook, the thicker and darker it gets). Both variations are great, as long as the texture is as described and shown in the pictures from the post.
- Transfer the quince paste to a dish lined with parchment paper.
- Let it cool down at room temperature, or in the fridge if you want. I never put it in the fridge because my kitchen is cold enough.
- It will thicken already within a few hours, but for the best result, leave it overnight to chill and set completely.
- Take your membrillo out of the moulds (parchment paper really makes this super easy, so don’t skip it) and let it air-dry for another day, or slice and serve immediately.
- Before storing the membrillo, make sure it’s dry enough so it won’t get sticky when stored. I recommend leaving it for a few days to air-dry at a cool and dry place.
- You can cut the membrillo into bite-sized pieces and dust it with sugar, or cut it into larger chunks that can be wrapped as cute gifts.
- Store the sugar-sprinkled bite-sized pieces in glass jars, and the larger chunks in covered metal cookie tins or glass containers.
Notes
* Choose quinces that are yellow, ripe and fragrant. They will give you the best tasting membrillo.
* The quinces will turn brown quite quickly as they oxidise after you slice them. This is normal and it won’t be a problem.
* The time needed to cook the quinces in the oven can vary a bit depending on the dish you’re using, the ripeness and variety of the quinces and other factors. You can check on them to make sure they are soft and ready for the next steps.
* If you left the quinces in the oven for too long and they got very dry, you can add some water when you blend them into a purée.
* This amount of sugar or xylitol is the minimum amount that gave me consistent results and a well-set membrillo. Traditional recipes call for even more sugar, and I did my best to reduce it as much as possible. With less sugar than what I wrote in this recipe, my membrillo turned out too soft for what I needed (storing and wrapping as gifts for friends). Homemade membrillo is probably one of my sweetest recipes, but this is how I look at it - membrillo is a precious treat, and you only enjoy a few bites at a time. Besides, membrillo bites are still a healthier and natural alternative to store-bought candy and, in my opinion, taste much better. So I hope you’ll give it a go! 🙂
